oy! another month gone by

work has been less busy since the only program i've had was spring crafts and hop in your jammies. we made butterfly magnets, coffee filter flowers, and bunny puppets. it was fun! jammies had 7 kids and it was perfect for lots of participation. we did london bridges and ring around the roses and had fun animal masks and it was a blast. plus any part of work where i can wear my pajamas is a good thing! cool things - a patron gave us a check for $10,000 and crap i forgot the other thing, maybe it'll come to me.

done lots of fun things with the fam. went camping with my parents, aunt and her boyfriend. we went on a long and lovely kayak ride, watched blind side and talked by the fire. it was relaxing and i read a lot and it was only and little warm and buggy. i did miss brian a lot. it was the first camping trip without him. i didn't have anyone to climb trees with (and their was a giganitc oak tree!) and only could get mom to play yahtzee with me (she got 3 yahtzees in two games!) and no one to do dishes with. i missed his sarcasm and grouchiness and his sweetness and his expertise at putting the camper up and down.

went to trey's 4th birthday party at chuck e cheese. haven't been to one since i was 11 and it was way fun! i got to hold a beautiful baby and laugh and catch up with my church friends from my teenage years and eat pizza. trey was very cute, especially with the presents. last year he wanted to look at and play with everything as he was opening gifts and it took forever. this year it was how fast can i rip this stuff open and get to the next one. karen and justin and i stopped at babies r us afterwards and i got her present. right now i'm working on the invitations for her baby shower. they are green and pink and jungley.

mom and cat and i hung out saturday. we went to the quilt exhibit at the museum and saw lots o quilts. a few lovely and a few weird. some had so much stuff on them glitter and shells and applique and embroidery. quilting technique kind of hit the back burner. but there were a few that took our breath away with their amazing stitching and colors and perfectness. then lunch at crispers and michael's (more scrapbooking stuff-i can't stop!)

i have so many projects to work on. i am furiously trying to finish cat's graduation present. it's not gonna get done on time, but hopefully it won't be too late. i'm doing karen's invites and then trying to make something for the baby. i also need to work on her pregnancy album and a much overdue baby shower book for ishu. i mean her kid turns 2 in july, so it's a bit late. i also want to make a picture book for olive's bday. i'm going to spend a few days with them around memorial day, so i can take the pics i need for it then. however, my camera is on its last leg. i hopefully can get a new one for christmas.

i went to a jewelry party at emily's last week and am going to host one at my house in 2 weeks. a good excuse to work a half day and get my house clean. i got together with the library ladies at emily's saturday and had fun laughing and talking and catching up. i also saw emily's son aidan play football that morning. so cute. 5 year olds trying to pass a football is hilarious. they even have little cheerleaders!

i am very excited about my trip to see susan at the end of may. we are roadtripping to arkansas and maybe missouri this time. never been to either state, so i'll have more to mark off on my places i've visited map. i also booked a cruise for jodi and i in december. i got way more back from the irs than i planned, so i was able to do it. it is 5 nights, 6 days, key west (i've never been!) and nassau. jodi's never cruised and she'll be finished with her pre reqs for pa school, so its a little celebration for her. it was way cheap (not that i'm paying for jodi, i didn't get that much back!)

anyway may brings me doing 4 preschool storytimes, hop in your jammies, a computer info/internet safety class for some brownies (girl scouts), working the first and last weekend, a lunch out with carrie, a planning the shower meeting with kate, my jewelry party (if the girl will ever email me!), a camping trip to payne's prairie, mother's day, aunt susan's bday, bill's bday, cat's graduation (luckily we don't have to attend, cause she isn't walking!), my susan trip, memorial day at the beach with ishu, and the premier of sex and the city 2!!

boy or girl?

have a yucky cold with a nasty cough. i've had bad headaches the last two days, but today that was better. just crazy coughing. last night sam came over and we watched grey's anatomy and had dinner which was fun. this morning i got called in to work. we'd asked for overtime but it hadn't gotten approved til this morning, so i went in to work 11-1 and then i had lunch with karen and justin. then we went to get her sonogram. the baby is so cute. we got to see her from all angles. yes her! she's perfect. then i got to meet the midwife, jane. she is hilarious! she's from scotland so she has an awesome accent and is just so regular. lots of texting and phone calls ensued. so little marisa emma marshall it is. then back to work, home for sushi and internet time, talking to emily and sam on the phone and debra on facebook. now to read myself to sleep so i can be back to work at 8:30. oh crap i gotta go pay rent, i forgot it was the 5th.

partying, working, family and accidents

can't believe i haven't written in three weeks. busy at work getting ready for the opening. we packed up the temporary library in 3 hours. i felt like death. over the weekend i went to the olustee festival with my mom and got food poisoning. i was so sick, i couldn't keep anything down, but at least i had my mom to take care of me. having to pack and unpack did not make me feel any better. that night i kept some food down and got lots of sleep, so tuesday i felt much better. i spent the morning getting ready for a work party for birthday people and as a thank you to all the people who helped work on the library. i decorated with valentine stuff from my house and it was a great party. lots of food and fun. the next few days involved fun and not so fun meetings downtown, unpacking, putting in order, shelving and shifting tons and tons of books. i did get to have a yummy lunch out with emily and debra. i had the most delicious salmon salad. i want another one right now! anyway the kids section looks fantastic. they installed this huge life like tree today and we only have one more section of books to shift. sandy, now a volunteer, came in to work on bulletin boards. she got one done, but i can't find the stuff for my two bulletin boards/book displays. that is one of the things i want to get done tomorrow.

on saturday i threw a birthday party for my three sisters and it was a lot of fun. the weather was so beautiful, that we partied oustide on the patio. it was a greek theme. my friends ishu and justin had some people over in january when i was visiting them in orlando and they had hummus and baba ganoush and pita bread and kabobs. it was soooo yummy, so i decided that i wanted to serve it for the girls' birthday party and centered the theme around it and the olympics. the girls got crowns of green leaves. we ate first and my brother in laws said it was so delicious and i should make it for all our get togethers, which is high praise from them. then we played some games. we lit the torches (tiki torches). the birthday girls were team captains and each team had to make a toga on their teammate out of toilet paper. dad helped me judge and keep time with the games. justin spun around so many times he fell over. he and karen came in third on that event. then they had to match the god or goddess with their power. mom and sam won. then we had cheesecake with strawberries or chocolate. and the last event was bobbing for grapes and olives in bowl of water. it was really funny to watch. we had the closing ceremonies where i gave the girls their medals. i made cute medals out of wood cutouts, that i painted and wrote happy birthday on. cat got the bronze and wasn't too happy about it. karen got the silver and sam got the gold. then we went in to open cards. karen brought her heart monitor and we got to listen to the baby's hearbeat. i got to take some tummy pictures too. she started wearing maternity shirts and looks so cute. she lost 17 lbs. during the first trimester and in the last week has gotten over most of the nauseousness. she gained 2 lbs. this week. she looks thinner everywhere, except her baby bump. next friday 3/5, i get to go with karen and justin to her ultrasound to find out the sex of the baby. then all the girls and justin made plans to go to babiesrus to register for baby stuff.

on thursday night i just barely hit someone in a parking lot. basically i left two lines of red of paint on her. she called the police to do a driver information exchange. the girl was nice and the officer was too. she tried to buff it out herself but it didn't work. she got an estimate today and it was $60 to buff it out, but only 50% chance of working. to repaint the door would be $600. we hadn't gotten the insurance company involved, cause i thought i had a $500 deductible. but i called the insurance company today and that only applies to fix my car, i don't have to pay anything for the other girl's car. my car just has two lines of no red paint, so no need to fix it, it's barely noticeable. i am so happy that i don't have to pay up.

with the party i got some cleaning done, but there is always more to do. i planted some pansies on the patio, since the dead looking plants weren't really party like. hopefully they live until spring arrives and i can plant some summer stuff and see what comes back from the horrible freezing weather we've had this year.

brian is doing good on his mission. i got a short email today, but mom got a really long one. i put together an album of the family for him and will send it off this week. i meant to have it done before he left, but the craziness of christmas wasn't conducive to getting it done. it was a little strange not to have him at the party but we know he's were he's supposed to be.

that's a short catch up of what's been going on.

livin' la vida loca

last saturday i slept in very late and then did laundry. debra came over and had pizza and then we made bday cards for the library. i'm in charge of bday parties and was out of cards people have given me, so we decided to make some and they turned out way cute! the i went to the hospital to stay with karen. i crocheted and read a little but mostly i did things for her. helping with the bedpan, vomiting, getting the nurse, holding the sprite can, putting ice on her tongue, turning lights on and off, keeping track of the times for her drugs, covering her with the blanket, moving the pillow, whatever she needed. i made a little bed for myself on the floor. hospital blanket, great grandma's afghan, hospital pillow, my pillow and then i covered up with the gator snuggie my roommate got me for christmas. the afghan kept the cold from the tiles from getting me. i was pretty comfy and even dozed of between 5-7am. karen had one really horrible bought of pain at 2am, but otherwise the night was uneventful. sunday she had no pain, so they sent her home monday morning. she went back to work wednesday for half a day and has just been her usual exhausted, nauseous pregnant self. i came home sunday morning and slept from 9:30-6:30.

monday back to work. so busy this week with hiring people and getting ready for the opening. we had several new people start and one i get to supervise. she's worked for the library longer than me and she's great! the little office is now being shared by 9 people. 4 desks and 9 people doesn't quite work. bryan and i did interviews all day tuesday and its looks like we'll have 3 more good people to work with. wednesday was my turn to go to the old library to unpack books, but they finished on tuesday so i didn't have to go. my back was very happy. i'm trying to organize my people and the 14-16 programs we will be doing each month this spring. i'm also planning bulletin boards that need to be made for the opening. i also got to order some things for the new library. it's like $1000 worth of stuff. i've never ordered that much before so hopefully it goes through ok. i have interviews this tues and wed for the other person i'll supervise. hopefully that goes smoothly and we all agree on who to hire.

tuesday night sam took me to dinner and a movie to thank me for all the times i've paid for things. now that she has a full-time job, she can pay for her own stuff. so we had a delicious meal at outback and then we killed time until the movie. i finally got a cute pair of black flats. the ones i have now are literally falling to pieces, but i haven't been able to find something i like. ta da! they had a pair that met all my criteria and they are great! plus it was bogo on everything so i got a great green purse. ever since i saw one at the goodwill in pennsylvania and didn't buy it, i've been wanting a green purse. then we went to dollar tree and i got a few things for valentine's day. i wish there was a dollar tree close to my house. there is so much there! then we went to cat's to get some pics of brian to put in his album i making him for valentine's day. he left the mtc this week and is in his first area. we don't know where that is yet, but hopefully we'll get a letter this week so we know exactly were he is. finally we went to see sherlock holmes. it was long, confusing and good. friday night emily and i went to the gym. it's the only time i went last week. i did 3 times the week before, so i'll just have to do better.

saturday i went grocery shopping, made mexican dip and went over to linda's for a girl's night with some library ladies. we were there for 4 hours. it was a great time and nice to catch up, since we work at different locations. i went to bed at 2am and then slept until 6pm. guess i was tired. i was supposed to make karen a sheppard's pie and take it over this afternoon. oops. i ended up making it at 11pm and will take it over before work tomorrow. she hasn't had one since she lived at home and is craving it. hopefully she can keep it down. february 1st. hard to believe. it's gonna be a crazy, busy, and hopefully fun month!!

fun and productivity

orlando was good. friday night justin had to do a work dinner, so olive, ishu and i went to izziban sushi. there were only three waitresses for the whole place and the bartender was also the busboy and host, so even though there were empty tables they weren't sitting people. my diet pepsi tasted funny, so i tried sierra mist, nada, water it was. it only took 20 mintues to get that figured out. the appetizer wasn't good and one of my sushi rolls was really salty. olive was not happy to be there. she bit her styrofoam glass of water and it exploded all over the table. it took forever to get the waitress to clean it up, while olive smacked the table to make water splash. she didn't want to sit in her high chair or eat. she had her 18 month check up that day and we figure the shot they gave her was making her grumpy. she's usually so good in restaurants. after that memorable meal we met justin at home and then went to twisty treat. is was a long drive, but was very yummy.

the next day i slept in late, watched roman holiday for the first time (so good!!) and then ishu made chilli for lunch. justin cleaned the garage and prepped our greek feast while ishu and i ran errands. she had things to return and we hunted down some glassware she wanted for her birthday. we found half of them in tjmaxx and half in ross. the lines were horrible!! we got a snack at chic fil a, which i've eaten at only once, like ten years ago. the salad was good. scrapbooking stuff was 40% off at joann's so i stocked up on birthday stuff. debra and i are making birthday cards for the library this weekend.

when we got home justin had made kebabs and two couples came over. one were people from church who use to live in gainesville that i haven't seen in forever and the other a high school friend of justin's. his fiance is from amsterdam and she had this lovely accent. we had spinach dip and pita bread with hummus as appetizers and then chicken, steak and veggie kebabs with wheat pitas and baba ganuoush. i never had it before and didn't know it was eggplant. it was such a yummy meal. then we played catch phrase, scene it and scattegories. monkey bread for dessert and then i got olive all wound up before putting her to bed. once the couples left, ishu gave me a pedicure.

i slept in again! we had leftover greek food for breakfast and then they got ready for church and i packed up. ishu gave me my christmas present. she designed and made me a bag for my crocheting. it has pockets inside for the hooks and is brown with flowers. she is sooo creative. once i was home it was reading and naptime. then the golden globes in between desperate housewives and brothers and sisters.

today i met carrie at the gym and we did a stretch class and then some cardio. the class is taught by a library patron and she gave me a shout out in the class and said how much she loved acld. then we went to bageland for lunch and exchanged christmas gifts. home to read and nap and then emily came over to borrow some stamps. she had the boys with her and they were a little wound up from their playdate. they had fun writting on me with a sharpie and themselves with a highlighter. i started it my wrighting on myself. i'm such a bad example. then the squealed bloody murder in front of my apartment and were gone. they are crazy but fun!

then i got productive. dishes washed, healthy dinner made and eaten, room cleaned, apartment vacuumed, bed made and craft table organized. watched castle with the roommate. love love love that show! now catching up on email, facebook and the blogs. tomorrow we start unpacking the storage of what will one day be my library again. oh the work in store. 2am and time for bed!

take it easy

its been an easy week. i had monday off, most of thursday and half of friday. i stayed in bed all day monday reading and sleeping. tues and wed were slow work days, mostly making decorations and games for the work christmas party. tuesday night i got all the christmas decorations out and most of it up. wednesday i got the tree up and hopefully will get the garland and lights in the window up tomorrow. i need to do dishes, wrap presents, pack and do laundry friday night and saturday morning before i go down to orlando. i'm staying with ishu and justin before i fly out monday morning. i'm watching emily's kids tomorrow afternoon so they can go get a new suv, since her husband totalled there's thanksgiving weekend. sam is supposed to get her car soon, but dad's being having trouble finding the title to her old car. after emily's kids, i'm going to watch sandy's grandson luke, while his mom goes to a christmas party. i've never watched him before, but he comes in the library a lot and is so cute!

today i did a program at a preschool and then went to work for a little bit. then i came home and washed my car. i haven't done that in forever. i took the day off to be with kate and jd, as trey was having surgery today. he didn't go in until the afternoon, so i got to take a nap and read. i went over around dinner time and hung out with them in the playroom and watched him eat lots of popsicles and ice cream. then i went to joanns and spent an obsene amount of money on yarn and scrapbooking supplies. then to publix to get ingredients for lasagna and german chocolate cake for the work christmas party and for christmas cookies. next was cvs to get my 3oz toiletries for my trip to pennsylvania. weather.com says the highs next week are in the 30s and the lows in the teens. and its gonna snow!! i'm so excited, but way glad my cousin is gonna pick me up from the airport so i don't have to drive in it.

after a yucky weekend of no tim and no gator win, this week has been good. hopefully the rest of my busy month is good too!

using my talents and my lack there of

so i actually was productive saturday night. i did 3 loads of laundry and put it away as soon as each load was done. amazing! i downloaded audacity and recorded like 7 songs and they sound pretty darn good. i also read a whole book (it was really short, but still).

sunday was church and teaching sunday school. when i was ready to start i had 1 student. i had to go round up people talking in the hallway. it went pretty well. this sunday school thing is harder than i thought, but in a different way. i was afraid of it being all deep and heavy into the scriptures and i feel very inadequate in my knowledge of doctrine. but the lesson plan is really excellent and it is almost too easy. it's covering stuff everybody already knows. so it makes it hard not to be boring. i spice it up with a game and food and stories, but being in front of people doesn't come natural to me. i've learned how to do it. luckily i have friendly faces among my students and just call on them and they do their best to say something. the biggest thing is that it's me that is getting the most out of these lessons. not the teaching, but the learning. i spent two hours preparing for that lesson and read great scriptures and stories and it reminded me of ways i can be a better person. i think that's the point of most of the callings in church.

after church i went to see singin' in the rain with suzi. it was great. there was yummy finger food before hand and the show had real rain. well the fire alarm spickets went off during that number and then came intermission where the crew used a wet/dry vacuum to clean it up. the singing was great and there was lots of dancing (tap!) and kissing. more than i think i've ever seen in one of gcp's shows. after that i went home and read. i was supposed to go to suzi's at 6:30 to scrapbook with her and emily. at 7:20 my alarm went off. i thought, why is my alarm set for 7:20am? i don't have to be anywhere on monday morning until 9:30. wait, that's not the alarm, that's my phone. and suzi's name is flashing on it. oh crap, i fell asleep. it's not morning, it's still sunday night. she and emily had fun laughing at me and told me to get my butt over there. so we scrapbooked (i actually finished 4 pages!) and gabbed of course. then i went home and finished organizing my craft table, well except for the paper. i went through all my stickers (and i have tons!!) and separated them into categories and put them away in my handy dandy sticker binder. only three more parks to scrapbook and my 'ga 2008 camping trip' scrapbook will finally be complete.

monday was the chiropracter, my leg and back are bothering me, stupid sciatic. on the way i threw up. i got about half out of the door which i flung open while almost stopped at a red light and the other half i got on my shirt. i hadn't eaten anything so it wasn't too gross, but still. luckily i had time after my appointment to go home and take another shower and change clothes before i had to be at work. oh the exciting life i lead!

wrapping up october

how time gets by me. cat came by work on wednesday and took me to lunch. it was great to catch up and i love a free meal! so homecoming weekend was good. the library float turned out well, and it barely rained while we constructed it. the library was pretty crazy saturday afternoon. i got home in time to watch the second half of the gator game. lots of screaming at the tv. we barely won. sunday's storytime went well. just 15 kids, but fun doing a halloween theme. monday was productive. i met sam at the mall and we had fun looking for an interview outfit for me and for accessories to our halloween costumes (gangster princess and minnie mouse). we had lunch at ruby tuesday and then i went out to dad's to clean. justin has been cleaning up the land and it looks awesome! brian and i played some wii and mom and i talked quilts. the rest of the week at work was jam packed. i have a high school intern i'm in charge of. she is great and learns quickly, but its another thing to do. i have a cookbook i'm in charge of for the library's united way campaign and the recipes are poring in. i have to format them and it takes a bit of time. plus doing the daily schedules. wednesday night i went to cat's and we talked for hours. thursday my ear started to hurt, but i left early friday to spend time in orlando with ishu. she and her husband just bought a house and i wanted to see it. we spent the entire time running errands. it was pretty tiring, but olive is adorable and ishu always makes me laugh. i came home saturday and went straight to karen's to watch the gator game. another close one. every since that hit on the head, tebow hasn't quite been himself. sam has been painting a mural on the wall of karen's nursery. justin and her are about to start trying for a baby, but they are gung ho into getting everything ready. sunday was church, where i taught my first sunday school lesson. then i went to the mall with suzi. her daughter was having a scavenger hunt in the mall for her birthday, so i did a trial run to see if the clues made sense. it was lots of fun! then out to karen and justin's for justin's bday party. yummy food and family fun. monday back to work and trying to finish the cookbook, since we are printing on tuesday morning. i ended up staying up the entire night to finish it. both my ears were killing me by now. i got to work a short day on tuesday, so i went to the dr and got some meds, then went home to bed. i ended up calling in wednesday and staying in bed all day. sam came over with lunch and washed my dishes, which was great as they were starting to smell. friday i had my interview and i think it went well. it'll be a couple of weeks before i know who got it. sam's been interviewing for a lot of jobs lately and i'd rather she gets one. at least i'm already happy doing what i am. friday night was the dance at church i looked pretty cute and sam looked awesome. my brother called just before the dance to say he'd got his mission call. he is going to spend two years in the salt lake city area preaching the gospel. i'm so excited for him and think it will be a wonderful life experience for him. i left around 11 and got some sleep. i went to see suzi's daughter run cross-country and emily was their too, so we got to catch up, which was nice. then i went grocery shopping, made potato salad and paid my bills. a bunch of us met at karen's to watch the game, which was really good and then took trey trick or treating. i dressed up and my family thought it was hilarious. my right ear doesn't seem to want to heal, so i stayed in bed all day sunday. i'm surrounded by six loads of clean laundry and no desire to put it away. i have a very weird schedule this month working lots of weekends but lots of weekdays off. my big things to accomplish this month are organizing the house, most specifically my room and getting to the gym. i got a short talking to by the dr, so i need to make it a priority. that's about it for now. off to sleep now.

being young and having fun

after many questions into my emtional and mental status from my last post, i'm here to say i'm feeling better (drugs are good) and am ready to inform you of all the wonderful things i've been doing lately.

so 2 weekends in orlando were lots o fun. ishu and justin are lovely to let me stay with them. and little olive is so funny and cute. dinner at justin's parents was delicious. i can now say that the best ribs every made are by justin's mom. we went to the craft show at the convention center. it was packed and i picked up a few things for dirt cheap, like i only spent $2.50 total. then we went to buca di beppo for a scrumptious lunch. i had gnocchi for the first time and it was great! the rest of the weekend was relaxing and running errands and i tried to play ghostbusters on the wii, but, let's face it, i'm not that good. my hands have troubles trying to do 4 things at once.

then two days of work with lots of programs at a center near downtown. the kids were older up to 12 years old, so i was a bit nervous. i took the two library interns with me. they totally didn't think i could get the older kids to do some silly songs with me. the kids loved it! the second day they wanted to do more! so it went well and the director wants me to come back in the fall for afterschool programs. i had sunday storytime today. we did the zoo. it was fun and the paper bag puppets were really cute. the weekend was not too busy, which is always good.

i went to my best friend kate's and jenifer's (her older sister by exactly 4 years) bday party last tuesday night and then stayed with my parents. brian and i played wii. he taught me star wars, again with my hands doing 4 things at once. i basically just push all the buttons and shake my hands around, and i finally beat him after like 10 games. then working for dad and getting my hair cut and highlighted, it looks mahvelus. lunch with sam and brian, fixed my broken car lights and some more wii with mom and brian. i'm really gonna miss him when he goes on his 2 year mission for the church, probably starting in october.

i finished my web class last thursday. i was taking the exam at 1am when i spilled a glass of water on my keyboard. luckily the keyboard is fine, but i submitted the exam only half done, getting a 53. i retook it and got a 100, but i couldn't get the certificate of completion because you have to have a 70 and they only except the first submission. after several emails up the food chain, i finally got someone with power and they mailed the certificate right away. now i just have to use those skills and make real websites!

so last week/weekend was all about being a bridesmaid. thursday i did laundry, gave a pedicure, and made a scrapbook of baby pics for the bride. then friday afternoon down to orlando i went. stopped by cvs first to pic up a prescription and realized i had no wallet. luckily this happened or i would have ended up in orlando with no license, money, or my temple recommend (which i needed to be at the wedding). to the church i went and decorating commenced. the men did the white lights drapped from the ceiling and we girls put on tablesclothes, made up flower vases for the center of tables, put out favors, put lights up along the walls, and arranged things. then the wedding party practiced the thriller dance we would perform during the reception. crazy! then to brent's house for sonny's and the making of the bridesmaid bouquets. back to ishu and justin's for chatting and bed.

the next morning ishu did my hair (she straightened it and it looked spectacular) then off to the temple. i was running a bit behind and so i did about 70 through orlando. the speed limit was mostly 45. thank goodness i didn't get pulled over. i made it 10 minutes before it started. got in the wrong elevator, then couldn't get out of the right one. the door opens on both ends and i was facing the wrong way. i hate those elevators that open in the front and back. i never know what i'm doing. anyway the ceremony was beautiful. then we took pictures outside. it was a gorgeous day, but about 100 degrees. sweating everywhere, we took pics for 45 minutes. then off to the church to boss people around. as head bridesmaid i did a lot of bossing around, it was fun! we did a ring ceremony and the reception was fun. brent wrote carrie a song and performed it (he's a music major, so it was good stuff) and they drove off to animal kingdom (a surprise for her). i checked their mail and left a lasagna in the fridge for their return.

after the clean up, which went way fast, i raced back to ishu and justin's so they could take me out for my bday dinner. we went to opa, a greek resturant which was awesome. the food was great, the atmosphere was loud music, a belly dancer and general craziness. i was yanked from my chair twice to dance, once all around the room, holding the hands of hot men. i also was pulled onto a table and sang happy birthday too. what a day!! sunday to church with the 4 year olds they teach, those are some funny little kids. then a nap and home. on the way i got pulled over for doing 83 in a 70. i had another wedding guest catch a ride with me and we were talking and i hadn't set the cruise control and anyway, i got a warning! i was sooo happy. either he thought meghan was way cute (which she is) or he saw that i've never had a speeding ticket (i know, amazing isn't it?), so i'm really glad that a) i fixed my broken taillight and blinkers the wednesday before (thanks brothers) and b) i had stopped at cvs and had to go back for my wallet, lest i had no license or proof of insurance for the trooper. as soon as i got home i ran in my apt, grabbed my scrapbooking stuff and headed to suzi's, where i mostly talked and got very little scrapbooking done. it was a wonderful week, but so tiring and my feet have just recovered from all that running around and standing.

this week has been slower, but involved a lot of being lazy, my clothes are clean but still sitting in baskets, my dishes are washed, but still piled in the drainer, my room has been cleaned once, but is back to a disaster. i've been going through my stuff looking for correspondence with my great aunt louise. she died two years ago and the nursing home people got her to sign a new will that left the money to them and a church she never went to. so my aunt susan has been battling it in court and she needs proof that we had a relationship with her. i found cards and letters she's written. my dad has a box of cards and letters from us that he found in her apartment when they cleaned it out. however, he doesn't know where the will is that he took from her apartment. the one that says we get everything. that is one of my missions tomorrow when cleaning his shop. must find 2003 will. i don't think i'm gonna find it as my parents have both looked, but maybe a miracle will happen.

a friend is retiring from work and a scrapbook is in the works. i went to emily's last night to work on my pages, while she worked on her interview for a job at the downtown library. i hope she gets it, but i'll miss her so much if she goes. i did better on scrapbooking this time, it took four hours, but i got the 2 pages done. obviously a lot of talking and goofing off occurred. i'm working on getting my grandma here for my sister's graduation and christmas, so i had a nice long chat with her. and i just got off the phone with my last roommate who now lives in utah. it was good to catch up with her, especially since she just finished her first summer as a full time mom to her new husband's three girls. i also found out that she's trying to get prego. so many people doing that, one sister (soon to be two), kate, and now julie. i'm hoping that i get to see her when my brother goes to utah in october. i'm gonna try to hitch a ride with him and my parents.

okay this is a way long post and it is now 1:30 in the morning. luckily i'm just working for dad tomorrow and i'm not expected til afternoon. my bday's wednesday, the big 3-0. i only have to work tuesday and friday, so this week will probably be relaxing and fun. only 13 days til our georgia vacay!!!

how do i fit it all in?

let's see. the bridal shower/bachelorette bash went really well. wonderful fun and great pictures abounded. i took emily's son to a bday party sat morning. he was very well behaved and i had a lot of fun. he's finally at an age where you can carry on a conversation with him and he's hilarious. then off to dad's to work. i did dishes, vaccuumed the whole place, and cleaned the area outside the front door. you can actually see the green indoor/outdoor carpet now instead of just dirt. then dad had me take apart a cpu. it was really dusty, but cool. i learned the names of stuff and what they actually do. i've used a computer since 1984 but never looked inside one. it was fun. and he finally gave me a laptop. unfortunately when i got it home, i couldn't get the wireless to work. but i had fun changing the desktop picture and all the colors to make it mine.

sunday i went to church, where my uncle spoke and of course my aunt came up. i had to go to the bathroom and have a good cry. but we sat next to each other in sunday school and talked about his kids and i felt better. then home to the very deep sleep of a long and much needed nap.

tuesday a daycare called and asked for a program the next morning. their fieldtrip to the zoo was cancelled, so i went wednesday morning and did a zoo program. it went really well, the kids participated a lot, which always makes it more fun. wednesday night i had dinner with debra and sam and then hit some sales at joanne's.

i took thursday off to catch up on my web class and work for dad. i learned tables, which was something i was interested in doing to help a web site look way more organized. i did it in the wee hours of the morning, so i made a lot of little mistakes, but finally got it right. at dad's i cleaned 4 of the 8 windows inside and out. lots o cobwebs, spiders, dirt and dust. i did dishes and worked on, or more like watched, him work on his wireless and getting my laptop to connect to it. it finally did, but when i got it home, i still couldn't get it to work. grrr. but i got money and dinner, so it was a successful day.

i worked the weekend. it was busy in spurts. the rain around 3pm saturday cleared the place out which was nice. we got pretty slammed sunday, so much checkin. but the real bummer was that the blood mobile was supposed to come. lots of people showed up for it, but it didn't arrive until 4pm, an hour before we close. i'm not sure they got anybody. when i got home jodi and i did some rearranging. the desk i use belonged to my last roommate, but jodi bought it from her. it didn't fit in her room, so i put it in the dining room for me to use. she needs more space to spread out her textbooks and study, so she rearranged her room and we switched desks. emily gave me her old flat screen, so i was able to get rid of that monsterous monitor. i also finally opened my all in one printer, scanner, fax, copier that i got for christmas. it is small and works great! i just have to figure out where to put all the stuff that was in the big desk. i'm also thinking of rearranging my room too, we'll see.

today i slept until 1pm. 12 hours of sleep. i guess i was tired. now just catching up on facebook, email, and blogging. gotta go to my sister's to help give her cat a shot. she needs them everyday, cause her kidney's are failing, and karen's in st pete on her last rotation! and justin's gone to new mexico cause his mom's having back surgery today. sam is staying with the animals, but needs help giving the shot. hard to hold a cat still and slowly stick a needle in. then we're gonna see a movie. the proposal if my roommate is free or harry potter if she's not. oh and i need to work on my class too. it ends august 7th and i'll be knee deep in wedding prep, so i have to finish this week.

playing catch up, again.

yikes its been over two weeks. i was waiting to do this at home so i could add some pics, but at home i find other things to occupy my time. the fourth of july party at cat and bill's was a great success. we played a new game, cornholing (don't know about that spelling) its like bean bag toss. i crushed my roommate and then my brother and i were a team against my brother-in-law justin and sister cat. the first game brian and i devastated them, the second game was neck in neck tying with 100 pts. cat and justin won the tie breaker, but i want a thrid game to prove who is the bestest! swimming in their pool was lovely. we had races, everybody joining in. i was the big loser of that game. i can't swim in a straight line, so i'm blaming my losing to everyone, including my mom, on that defect (she can't swim a straight line either, so it must be her fault). the fireworks were awesome and no one lost any body parts, although my mom stayed on her feet to run if need be. they were pretty big to be exploding right over our heads.

olive's bday party in orlando was sooo much fun. the drive to and from orlando was mostly terrifying and slow. rain is bad on the interstate. lots o accidents and with all the construction in o town water just sits on the road and you go through puddles and just know you're gonna crash into one of those cement barriers and kill yourself. however, the party was a success. the kids loved the pool and cupcakes. the adults loved the food, the cuteness of olive, and pummeling ishu with water balloons (thanks to me!) i'm going down again at the end of the month for a craft fair that should be way fun. and we're gonna eat at our new place bocca de beppo (spelling again) this family style italian place that is awesome! oh and of course i like spending time with the martinez family :)

carrie's bridal shower is tomorrow! filmed the groom answering questions last night and it was hilarious!! i have a lot of cooking to do tonight though. plus the missionaries are coming over and my sister and dinner must be cooked. i'm making meatloaf. oh how i love it, its making my mouth water. i've been making lists today for all the things i still need to do for tomorrow. i will not be getting to sleep anytime soon. i have to finish her present, i finished the big part last night and i think sam can help with the rest while i cook. that would be oh so wonderful. i really hope all goes well tomorrow night. that people show and carrie has fun and the bachelorette part downtown works like a want. we'll see.

i am getting behind on my web class. i had to do two lessons fast this week before they disappeared. gotta catch up this weekend. i worked for dad last friday. i scrubbed the fridge, it looks really good. we also worked on my hand me down laptop, which im way excited about. hopefully we finish it when i go out this saturday. i'm taking emily's son aaron to a bday party saturday morning (hopefully he behaves, the little rascal) and then i'm going out to dad's and hopefully free movie, transformers, with sam and the roommate. work has been good this week. i don't have any programs for two weeks and finished the booklists i've been working on, so i'm being kinda lazy at work since i'm so busy in the personal life. i did go to the gym three times last week and three times this week. i lost 3 lbs. last week, so we'll see if that continues this week. i hope to get to the gym sat night, but usually cleaning dad's shop is a workout in itself.

i think that's everything. i'm sure it's not, but enough for now. hopefully some pics next time!

Thing 8 - Alternative Means of Communicating

So luckily I had already done all of these things before. I'm not much into chat, I'm all about the phone if you have to talk and you're not next to each other. But really, I don't like the phone either. I'm all for old-fashioned talking face to face. However communicating through technology when face to face isn't possible is great! When my sister's where in high school, they were always chatting online with random strangers that soon became boyfriends (I don't know what my parents were thinking.) Sometimes they'd have to run to the bathroom and I'd pretend to be them or just be myself (as I got to know some of them after they came for visits-some staying on my couch-or I drove my sister to them-what was I thinking?) Emily and I decided to set up Google Talk. We had fun for a day iming each other since our offices are on opposite sides of the library. I have also used the chat function in Facebook. Whenever I'm on Facebook (usually trying to upload pics) people will message me. This is hard because the uploading pic feature covers up most of the im box, but that is a complaint for another post. I also do AskALibrarian. While I think the service is good, I'm not a huge fan. Most people want to know something specific to their own library and think I'm sitting in their library. Half the time I end up telling them to contact their own branch because I can find the answer on their library's website. Other people ask for answers to their homework or big long involved questions that I find very difficult to do when not face to face. The reference transaction is harder, you can't see facial expressions, hear tone, etc. I'm glad Florida offers it, but its not really my thing.

So texting. I'm not a texter. I only see the need for this when you are in a place you can't talk, like class, and you need to find out something from someone. Or you are bored in class and you need something to keep you awake. I do it on occasion, because several friends and family are big texters. My sister does it while driving, SCARY! The money issue comes into it to. Some people have unlimited texting with their plans, while their phone minutes are limited, so its more cost effective to text. I could pay $5 a month for unlimited text, but I do so little, I just pay 15 cents a text and have only gone over $5 once. So not cost effective for me, but I'm sure it is for others. I know UF uses texts to send out campus wide alerts, like closing for a hurricane. Which is a really fast and effective way to reach kids, cause they always have their phones. So texting has its purposes, but not for me. Texting kids about library programs would be cool.

I have partcipated in a few web conferences. They involved my phone and computer and most allowed me to ask questions over the phone. I think this is by far the best form of communication of the three discussed. It is such a great way to get info out there, without having to do all the expensive and time consuming travel. You can have people all over the country in on the same meeting. It is sooo awesome! The only problem is that many people don't understand what they are doing and time gets wasted helping people fix their technology problems. On one occasion the technology wasn't working for anybody and they had to cancel the class. That is a downside, but when it works, its fabulous.

Thing 6 - Mashups are What?

That's what I think of this mashup thing. The only thing that made some sense was "An example is the use of cartographic data from Google Maps to add location information to real-estate data, thereby creating a new and distinct web service that was not originally provided by either source" from Wikepedia. Perhaps because my sister is trying buying a house and I've been doing the whole real estate, google maps thing. I don't really understand how some guy making a program that takes photos from flickr and spells stuff is a mashup. I guess because one source is taking something from another source to make something new. But you could just go to flickr and do it yourself, granted it would be more work. Maybe I do get it. By this guy making a program on his site, to take something from another site, he's made something new that makes my life easier. That is, if I ever use it.

Well in my trying to use this, I got a little frustrated. I didn't know how to get the HUH? into my blog. I tried copying the html and putting it straght into the compose box of a new post. That didn't work. I did it in the Edit Html box and it just pasted the goobly gunk that I'd copied. I was expecting it to just paste the letters HUH? The only reason I thought of copying the Html, since there weren't any easy insturctions on the Spell with Flickr, was because the few times I've done stuff to my MySpace page I had to do that. Anyway, I tried just copying and pasting the word HUH? and of course that didnt' work. Then I tried putting it in the Edit Html box again and clicked Compose. Ta-da! The HUH? appeared. I never have understood how to make a link or Html very well. I need to take a class.

I like sharing photos online, I think it would be fun to have pics from our programs online so people can see what they missed and try to make it next time. Unfortunately, we have to get permission from the people in the photo and have them sign a release form and its all just too much work. But I don't think this part is really about sharing, its about making something cool from pics you steal from somebody else. I guess I just don't really see the point.

a wonderful weekend

its been so long since my last post. i've set down many times and gotten a few sentences, but always get pulled away to help somebody. its hard being so smart :)

so my weekend was fantastic. i had four days off and made the most of it. the best adventure was walking to the local park with emily and her boys. on the way back she needed to go to the bank and we decided to cut across a ditch and walgreens parking lot. there was construction, because they are building a cvs next to the walgreens (those two always have to be together), and the ditch had some cement colored mud at the bottom that was cracked and looked dried. so we start across the ditch, emily pushing the stroller and me carrying aidan's bike. halfway across i scream because my left foot has sunk to my ankle. emily starts to sink too, but manages to escape. we start laughing and can't stop. i can't get my foot out, so i hand the bike to emily. i have to take my foot out of my shoe and dig around in the muck to pry me shoe out. then i had to put my poor foot, clad only in a little ankle sock, down into the mushy mess. luckily my right foot came out with the shoe still on. meanwhile aidan goes across further down on sand and has no problems. the fact that he weighs a lot less than us probably didn't hurt either. we stop on the side of walgreens and try to scrape some of the yuck off our shoes. we are still laughing, especially when aidan tells all the walgreens customers coming to and fro, that mommy fell in the mud. after cleaning up the best we can, i put my shoe back on and try not to touch anything with my gray hands. arriving back at emily's, i took of my shoes and socks, with some help from aaron, and scrubbed the drying cement mixture off my hands. a very amusing afternoon walk!

i also went to orlando to see some friends and their adorable daughter olive. we got manis and pedis, did henna tattoos on each other (mine is so cool!) and had jeremiah's gelati. my first try of this delicious concotion. soft serve ice cream layered with italian ice. i got vanilla ice cream with strawberry ice. next time i'll try pina coloda. after coming home, i went to a little surprise bday party and had a blast!! the next day i did a lot of sleeping and then scrapbooked at a friends. i was very sorry to see the weekend end. but i'm going to arizona this weekend for a wedding, so more adventures are in store!